As New York grew horse and buggies just couldn’t cut it as the main source of transportation. So the subway was created. It was first created as just a way to make a quick profit but ended up becoming one of the most valuable things New york city today has to offer. It offered a way fro people to stay connected and to travel at a cheap cost.
It was also extremely efficient It covered a lot of ground in the first place and than when they started to make money they expanded. It also found a way to connect all the boroughs in New York. subway
It is very easy to point out the significance of this development in modern times, but let us not forget the history of our beloved subway. The subway train basically combined all the beneficial aspects of omnibuses, horse railways and steam railroads into a beautiful neat package. Obviously this did not happen overnight. As the suburb craze was hitting New York businessmen were trying to lure upper and upper middle class citizens into the paradise surrounding the city, investors needed a way to get them to and from their work place. When developers bought up land in Brooklyn or other areas across a waterway ferries were usually used, but as the upper class was moving up town this is when ground transportation really began to improve.
Sadly at first all this transportation really did was facilitate the widening of the social classes gap. Railroads enabled elites to move to further lying area because of its speed and holding capacity. As the city expanded, transportation expanded stopping at more places allowing a better commute for whoever could afford the ticket price. Putting a modern spin on this, even in our time you can see this favoritism toward upper class peoples and “better” neighborhoods. Many subway lines that go into less desireable areas frequently have service problems and there has even be cancelation of service in certain areas. All in all the subway is a magnificent development and will forever impact urban society, and the best part is now every can reap its benefits.
I agree – the subway system was and is one of the most amazing transportation feats in the world. The subway eventually outgrew many forms of transportation such as the “horse and buggy” and walking. Walking from one place to another over long distances is touch. Can you imagine walking from Baruch to Colombia University? That’s 85 streets away -over a 2 hour walk.
The subway system was made in 1904. I agree that it created a cheap option in which to move across the city. For some people, it even made them money. This may seem far-fetched, but subway transportation could indeed help businesses transport products from one part of the city to another. Furthermore, many people to date are using cars as a means of transportation throughout the city. The subway had indeed taken away from the dependency on transportation with cars. This is because there is no traffic when using the subway and because the subway is almost always cheaper than taking a cab to and from work. All in all, the subway system has revolutionized transportation as we see it today.
Subway was, and still is, a very valuable method of transportation. With crude streets and roads, transportation without the rail was a brutal task. Not only did the subway help the civilian passengers get to places, it also increased commerce in different boroughs of the city: people were able to find work in different parts of the city. Subway system is one of the most prized assets that New York City has to offer even to this day.